Fresh cable cut hits Vietnam’s Internet, again

Subscribers of Viettel, one of Vietnam’s leading Internet service providers, started experiencing snail-paced connection speed on July 9, but it is not the infamous AAG submarine cable system to blame this time.

Instead, it was a rupture found on the Intra Asia (IA), one of the four international underwater Internet cable systems Vietnam is connected to, that is slowing down connection speed in the country.

Military-run Viettel suffers the most damages as it has the biggest reliance on the IA to ensure Internet traffic for subscribers, compared to FPT or CMC Telecom.

The telecom firm however announced on July 9 that it had added deployed back-up solution to make up for 30% of the international traffic loss caused by the IA incident. Viettel admitted that users will still have to experience slow connection at times due to overloading.

The IA incident came only ten days after the Asia America Gateway (AAG) cable system, crucial to Vietnam’s Internet connectivity, underwent its infamous regular maintenance from June 22 to 27.

Viettel said it is making use of the AAG system to ensure Internet quality for customers, except for though using services hosted in Singapore.

The Vietnamese carrier said it is working with its partner, Tata Communications, the operator of the IA part connected to Singapore, to fix the rupture.

Repairs are expected to take a week, from July 12 to 19, during which connection will be disabled on the entire IA system to serve the welding tasks.

Viettel pressed however that its back-up plans will ensure the repairs will not greatly affect users.

The IA underwater cable system was launched late 2009, connecting Singapore, Vietnam, the Philippines, Hong Kong and Japan. Spanning a total length of 6,800km, the system boasts a data transfer speed of 3.84Tbps. among the Vietnamese Internet service providers, Viettel exploits the most of this system.

The other three major international submarine Internet cable systems Vietnam is connected to are the AAG, SMW3 (Southeast Asia - Middle East - Western Europe 3), and TVH (Thailand-Vietnam-Hong Kong).

Internet traffic in Vietnam is greatly affected whenever the AAG cable ruptures, as the system has the largest capacity out of the four.

VNPT, Viettel, and FPT are reportedly participating in a trans-Asia Pacific cable system project that will connect Asia with the US and is scheduled to go online in 2016.